Social dilemma
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A Social dilemma is a paradox that arises from a social decision situation in which contributions are needed to attain some common and shared goal or end-result, and where the rational choice of the individual is to "free-ride". For instance, if it was possible for you to be a non-paying passenger on a bus ride, that's the "rational" thing for you to do, in so far as it would leave you better off. You would both get the ride and keep the fare money. But in this situation, if everybody does the individually rational thing, that is collectively irrational. The common goal of getting bus rides from stop A to B can only be sustained if most or all are paying passengers.
Papers: Dawes, R. and Messick, M. (2000). "Social Dilemmas" International Journal of Psychology, 35 (2), 111-116.
[edit] See also
- Collective rationality
- Decision theory
- Free-rider
- Game theory
- Nash equilibrium
- Non-zero-sum
- Rationality
- Prisoner's Dilemma
- Strategic games
- Tragedy of the commons
- Tragedy of the anticommons
- Voting paradox
- Zero-sum game
- Collective action
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